McDonald's bets on Monopoly game to lure in loyalty members

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) is bringing back its popular Monopoly game (HAS) for a limited time on October 6 giving customers the opportunity to win vehicles, vacations, and even $1 million.

"Our fans have been clamoring for the return of MONOPOLY at McDonald's, and we're thrilled to bring it back with a modern, digital spin," said McDonald’s senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer Alyssa Buetikofer.

The new Monopoly game won’t feature the traditional physical paper board. Rather, game pieces peeled off food packages can be scanned into the game app for registered members of the McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) loyalty program. If all pieces of a Monopoly property are collected, customers can redeem for prizes including airline miles, a Jeep Grand Cherokee (STLA) and $1 million in cash.

While the game was previously marred by a prize rigging scheme in 2001, the annual six-week run was viewed as a promotional success by the company, drawing in customers eager to win attractive prizes despite its astronomical odds.

The game was first introduced in 1987 and last released in the U.S. in 2016 as “Money Monopoly.” By reintroducing the game after a nearly 10-year hiatus, CEO Chris Kempczinski hopes to draw customers to the company’s loyalty program.

“Roughly a quarter of our business in the US is from our loyalty program,” Kempczinski said during McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) recent earnings call with analysts.

“We’re seeing that the loyalty program drives significant increases in frequency…so getting more and more consumers to be in our loyalty program, that’s how we’re going to drive this business,” Kempczinski added.

With a goal of 250M global active loyalty members by the end of 2027, McDonald's (NYSE:MCD) has reached three-quarters of that goal so far.